Thursday, December 1, 2005 Travel Home

We left Guatemala and are heading home. We will be entering the United States through Houston, TX and then catching a flight to Minneapolis. See you then.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005 U.S. Embassy

Today is our appointment at the U. S. Embassy. We were told that Sandra's sister "Stephanie" was going to be our translator and would be going with us to the embassy. We also were told that another couple would be going with us because they had the same court time.

We met Dave, Janet and Charlie Holdsworth (photo at bottom left). Oddly enough they are from Maple Grove, MN and was working also with IAS. Wierd how everything works out.

Stephanie arranged for a taxi (a mid-size vehicle) that the 8 of us crowded into. In front was the taxi driver and Steph with Vivian on her lap and in the back seat was Cory, Dave, Janet, Charlie and Stephanie (the translator). This felt really strange to have 2 children on our laps without car seats. The culture is so different.

On our way we had to stop and get photos of the children for their visa's. We stopped at this photo booth that was just along the side of the road. It was nice to have another family with us and we all didn't really know what was going on, but just went with the flow of things. Once we got the pictures done we all piled back in the taxi and off to the embassy. The embassy was really crowded with people, thank God for the interpreter. We are not allowed to bring the camera in the embassy so we are unable to get any more additional photos :(

That evening we celebrated with the Holdsworth down in the bar at the Marriot. There was a "band???" playing typical Guatemalan music. Vivian was mesmorized by them. Happy days ahead!!!

Monday, November 28, 2005

We thought today we would be tourists. The Marriot had a shuttle that would take you to a few places not too far away from the hotel. We wanted to see a bit of Guatemala, but not comfortable enough to make a day trip to Antigua. We chose to go to a local market and a couple of museums. This is a picture outside of the market. The day was beautiful and was an amazing day as a family.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

I think all of us slept pretty sound. Vivian slept until 3 am. Cory gave her a bottle and she was back to sleep until about 7 am. We took our time on getting going and went down to breakfast around 9:30. Vivian was so good. For the most part, she slept in the stroller. Her routine seems to be eat and then nap for 40 minutes or so.

After breakfast we got a taxi and went to the closest Catholic Church, Immaculada de Tivoli. The mass did not start until noon, but we left early around 11:00 not knowing the how long it would take. Well it ended up taking only 15 minutes and the cab driver told us he would wait for us.

We were the 2nd people there so we had the opportunity to look around the church. Vivian slept through most the mass that was very similar to ours. We could easily follow although we didn’t know the language. The local people strolled in 30-45 minutes late. At this point we thought we would be there for 2 hours or so. However, mass lasted an hour and our taxi driver was waiting.

Wednesday, November 30 Vivian's Visa

Good Morning! Our last step is to pick up Vivian's visa and to purchase a lap ticket for her to travel home. We will be traveling home tomorrow, entering U.S. soil in Houston. Today we decided to go to the Museum of Archeology and Museum of Modern Art. Although we wouldn't know what we were really studying, it was great to see some of the culture and history of Guatemala. We chose to take Vivian for her first outing in the Baby Bjorn carrier rather than taking the stroller. We assumed she liked "hanging out" with daddy!

While we were at the Museums, we saw a group of children on a field trip. I love this photo because it shows how some of the children dressed in their native cloths.

After filling Vivian's tummy with a bottle she decided she had seen enough, and thought she'd called it a day!

Saturday, November 26, 2005 "Gottcha Day"

We got up fairly early, anxious to hear from Sandra and Mirna; the attorney’s assigned to us in Guatemala. We did not think to check with our agency before we left on when or how we would hear from them. So to waste some time, we went down to the breakfast buffet. Breakfast was excellent! They offered omelets made to your liking, fresh fruit, cheese, pastries, and juices and of course the traditional Guatemalan foods.

Once we got our fill we came back up to our room and waited. Finally at 11:09 am we got a call. It was Sandra. She said “Mr. and Mrs. Sommer, can you please come down to the lobby.” I said, “of course, we’ll be right there.” Cory grabbed the video camera and camera and we headed for the lobby. There she was, we recognized her (Maria del Mar) right away. Tears shed from my eyes as we approached them and all I could say is she is so beautiful! We cried and chatted briefly and then went up to our room.

Sandra and Mirna told us information from her foster mother (photo to the left). One important fact was that she slept through the night! We couldn’t believe it, and wouldn’t believe it until we experienced it for ourselves. How lucky would that be? We asked as many questions as we could think of and were given a number in which we could reach Sandra. All her foster mother asked that we send her a photo once in a while. The entire foster family had a hard time saying good bye. I gave Sandra and Mirna a gift to take to her foster family and then they left. The time we spent together was probably only ½ hour. We were on our own and were an instant family!

For the remainder of the day all we did was sit and stare at her in disbelief and take pictures.

Friday, November 25, 2005 Guatemalan Airport

Once we arrived in Guatemala it was about 10:30 pm. Customs was a breeze, just stamped our passports. Fortunately, we met this guy named Wayne on our first leg of the flight. He is originally from Bemidji, MN and has been doing mission work in Guatemala for the last 12 years. He gave us a lot of advice and helped us with our shuttle to the Marriot and a bit with the language barrier.


The Marriot is about 10 minutes from the airport. We checked in and put us on the 3rd floor of the hotel. This is where the majority of the families who are adopting stay. They actually have a room called the "baby lounge" that is available to all the adoptive families. It has a lot of amenities. There is small kitchen has a microwave, bottle warmers, dish soap and bottle brushes. It also has a changing area with the changing pad, diapers, wipes, etc. Toys, books and many other necessities are also furnished. Pretty cool. You can tell they cater to families who are adopting. I unpack all our stuff so that we could be ready for our little delivery in the morning.

Friday, November 25, 2005 Mpls Airport

It is snowing as we departed from the Minneapolis airport. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 1:07 pm, however it was delayed due to the weather. We sat on the runway waiting for them to de-ice the plane. At approximately 2:30 our flight took off. We are not sure how we finagled this, but we got 1st class tickets from our flight to Houston and our connecting flight to Guatemala. We kicked back and had a Bloody Mary and a Bailey’s on the rocks. Lunch was actually served to us; sandwiches, rather than a bag of pretzels. This 1st class status is so cool.

Our connecting flight was also delayed. We were supposed to be leaving at 7 pm and we didn't even begin boarding the plane until then. Again we sat in 1st class and were entertained by watching Madagascar. Dinner was an awesome salad, rolls, shrimp entree with something similar to cheese quesadillas and vegetables. Wine was served and tiramisu was the dessert. Everything was wonderful! It felt like we were at a gourmet restaurant.